Shenmue II Game Jam Prototype - Master Baihu (in-depth exploration)

A complete tour through the Master Baihu section in the Shenmue II Game Jam Prototype.

If you didn’t know, a prototype of Shenmue II was released at the end of May, thanks to the efforts of a group of passionate fans, who took it upon themselves to recovering, researching, and sharing this invaluable piece of Shenmue history. Without their commitment, this build would have likely been lost into someone's private collection, so they truly deserve our deepest gratitude!

The prototype, dated around April 2001, is at the very least 3 months prior to the final Japanese version, released on July 16, 2001. Because of that, it has A LOT of small differences throughout the entire 4 discs.
If you want to learn more about this build, both Sega Dreamcast Info and Shenmue Dojo are a great place to start! I also highly recommend you check out the amazing blog dedicated to this prototype, made by the legendary Shenmue fan and researcher Miles, where he goes in-depth on the history and all the info and discoveries that have been documented so far. Links below!

One of the things I was most looking forward to when playing through this build was witnessing how much the Master Baihu segment would differ from its final counterpart. Originally, he was meant to be the fourth street fighter Ryo would have to best in order to get access to the Yellow Head building, and this prototype still has a few remnants of that idea, despite how late into development it presumably is.

While this is not exactly a comparison video, I did (try to*) sync up the prototype cutscenes to the final ones, in order to give you a better idea of how much the game changed. I also share my attempts at glitching out the fight later in the video, which made for some unexpected moments!

I say 'try to' because I initially recorded footage from both games with a widescreen cheat, but only later realized the footage looked stretched in the prototype! 😬I believe it's because the cheat doesn't work properly in the prototype, but at the same time, I hated the idea of having to re-record everything in 4:3, so I just stretched the PAL footage to fit the prototype's... I hope it doesn't look too bad... 😓

Feel free to let me know your thoughts, and even point out extra stuff I failed to mention in the comments section. Enjoy the video!

Timestamps:

0 (00:00) - Tiger Gate Building, B3 - Master Baihu's prototype location
1 (02:48) - Ryo Hazuki VS Master Baihu in the prototype
2 (05:06) - Baihu is defeated, Ryo and Joy proceed to 40F
3 (07:35) - Prototype-exclusive glitches I found by accident
4 (13:33) - Skipping Baihu with the Map Glitch (works on all versions)
5 (17:30) - BONUS CLIP

Links:

► SEGA DREAMCAST INFO ARTICLE: https://en.sega-dreamcast-info-games-...
► SHENMUE DOJO THREAD: https://www.shenmuedojo.com/forum/ind...
► STUART'S BLOG ON THE PROTOTYPE: https://shenmue2gamejam.wordpress.com/

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OT: I had this video almost done at the end of June, but inexplicably abandoned it just before putting the finishing touches. Well, you know what they say… better late than never!

#Sega #Shenmue #Prototype #シェンムー #VirtuaFighter #Glitch #Bug #Beta #Unseen #Explore